


Control

by josephina_x



Series: The Last One To Know [1]
Category: Smallville
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bodyswap, Gen, Rating for Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-21
Updated: 2014-01-21
Packaged: 2018-01-09 12:27:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1145980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yes, Lex has control over Kal-El. <i>Intimate</i> control. ...over his body, anyway. But, frankly, this was <i>not</i> what Lex had had in mind. He'd been jealous of Clark's <i>life</i>, yes, but not his body.</p><p>...Well, okay, <i>maybe</i> his hair. His really nice hair.</p><p>And the superpower thing. That was all right.</p><p>Not the allergies to <i>rocks</i>, though. Those were <b>way</b> worse than asthma.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Control  
> Author: [josephina_x](http://josephina-x.livejournal.com)  
> Fandom: Smallville  
> Pairing: --  
> Rating: R (for language)  
> Spoilers: general up through seasons 7-10, goes AU starting at episode 1 of season 8 -- and this time, I mean "spoilers" as in: "the author expects you to know this stuff, or it won't make much sense _at all_ "  
> Word count: 2100+  
> Summary: Yes, Lex has control over Kal-El. _Intimate_ control. ...over his body, anyway. But, frankly, this was _not_ what Lex had had in mind. He'd been jealous of Clark's _life_ , yes, but not his body.
> 
> ...Well, okay, _maybe_ his hair. His really nice hair.
> 
> And the superpower thing. That was all right.
> 
> Not the allergies to _rocks_ , though. Those were **way** worse than asthma.  
>  Warnings: Un-beta'd.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, not-for-profit.  
> Comments: Yes, please! :)  
> Author's Note: Bodyswap AUs. Gotta love 'em :)
> 
> (...yes, I'm still working on the next chapter of Timeshared. Sigh.)
> 
> (No, this is not that.)
> 
> This is an old idea with a new execution. (One of my very first SV!fic ideas, actually.) The original epic-to-be is plotty as fuck, with this huge sprawling massive storyline that's... actually relatively straightforward start-to-finish. I may eventually write that one one day. This one will likely go in a completely different direction though, as the circumstances of the swap are different. So yay-fun. :)
> 
> (...Yup, I was right. Completely different direction. *headdesk*)

~*~*~*~*~*~

Goddamnit, he'd tried. Really, he had.

He'd known where that fisherman usually dropped anchor, relative to the location of the Fortress. He'd even managed to trudge his way there and ask the man to get him to a safe harbor, saying that he had friends that would pay good money to see him well.

When they ended up at the black market warehouse facility from which he usually obtained his caviar, he'd thought that would be that -- they'd recognize him, and as a wealthy and influential customer of excellent standing, would offer him a good turn. (The current man in charge owed him a favor, too.)

What he hadn't realized was that they wouldn't recognize him on sight.

Mostly because Lex had been too out of it at the time of his rescue to realize that he looked like Clark, not himself.

Needless to say, the fisherman who had picked him up was not happy about this, and decided to recoup his losses, one way or another.

This was how Lex accidentally managed to get himself sold into slavery to the Russian mob.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Lex wasn't all that thrilled to run into Oliver after attempting to run himself through a chain-link fence.

Unfortunately, the truck had held up less well than the fence.

But, really? 'Follow my lead'?

Since when would he turn down an excuse to punch Oliver Queen in the face?

~*~*~*~*~*~

All right. As a start -- and Lex had been making a mental list since he'd been enslaved -- Lex was definitely going to need to work on his running _and_ his fighting, along with everything else. In fact, those two were now currently heading up the top of the list.

Those extra couple inches of Clark's were throwing him off completely...

Also, apparently Oliver _still_ sucked even when he was _trying_ to be a good friend. He was just a crappy friend. This explained much.

...Lex hoped he'd get another good chance to punch Queen in the face again, really very soon.

~*~*~*~*~*~

So, yeah, apparently Oliver Queen was Green Arrow.

...

_Son of a--_

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Oliver had asked him, "Where is Lex Luthor?" and then shot him through his chest, Lex had thought that it was because Queen had finally figured everything out.

Oh, how wrong he was.

~*~*~*~*~*~

So, apparently Martians were a thing.

...Well, at least one of them was, anyway.

He'd been wondering about the general lack of superpowers.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Luckily, he got the speed thing down pretty quickly, and Chloe's Watchtower databases were _very_ thorough.

...Wait.

They'd thought he'd been building an army to _take over the world?! **Really?!?!**_

...

...

...

_What the--?!_

~*~*~*~*~*~


	2. Chapter 2

~*~*~*~*~*~

Oh, great. Tess was in charge of LuthorCorp.

And apparently so was "Lex Luthor." Sort of.

At least Clark had the good sense not to try and handle LuthorCorp's day-to-day proceedings. Even _Tess_ stood a better chance of running LuthorCorp than him. (Ugh.)

...assuming that Clark was him now, while he was Clark. If he was really just a brainwashed-Clark or something, while an original-him was actually at LuthorCorp plotting revenge, Lex was going to be in big trouble.

If he really was Lex himself.

...

Because he was himself, right? Lex Luthor? Stuck in Clark's alien body? Probably by accidentally using the same sort of Kryptonian tech that ~~his father~~ Lionel had used to bodyswap himself with Clark in jail that one time?

...

...

_...Oh god, I really hope I'm not actually Clark and just crazy._

~*~*~*~*~*~

But how could he really tell? Nobody _else_ seemed to be able to...

~*~*~*~*~*~

Did it even really matter? He wasn't exactly the same person he'd always been simply by merit of having a different body now, one with vastly different capabilities than his ~~original~~ meteor-strike freakishly-mutated one. Certainly, a change in one's physical abilities -- for good or for ill -- did not necessarily make one a different person, but it unequivocally did _change_ them.

He could walk down the street now, and nobody would pay attention to him unless he _actively did something_ to try and draw it to him. (--And sometimes not even then!)

He could even save Tess from a bus, and nobody would think the least bit of it. (And didn't.)

He now had super-strength, super-speed, super-breath -- _sneezing? **really?**_ \-- and super-lung-capacity, X-ray vision, heat-vision (and/or laser-eyebeams), telescopic-vision, and apparently accidentally floated in his sleep sometimes.

Kara ~~Kent~~ Zor-El could _fly_.

Lex ought to be able to _fly._

Lex could be Warrior Angel, just only secretly bald without actually being bald.

...

...

_\--This is going to be **so much fun!!!**_

~*~*~*~*~*~

Journals? _What_ journals? He'd never written any journals!

For one thing, he wasn't _stupid_ \-- Lionel would have found them and read them.

For another... ugh, just, _no_.

The lying, sociopathic little...

The worst part was that Lex couldn't even _call_ her on it, because then she'd try and figure out how he could _know_ that **for certain**.

...

...Okay, maybe Tess was smarter than she'd let on before. If she had suspicions about her current employer, but "Lex" wasn't saying anything for certain, then...

Right. So: Clark hadn't told Tess (or likely anyone) what was up with the whole bodyswap thing (assuming that really was what had happened to them) and Tess was digging from both sides.

He was going to have to be a lot more careful around her than he'd originally thought he'd need to be.

\--Not _avoid_ her, mind you, because that would be suspicious. But. He'd have to think things through a little more with another Luthor in the equation. (Even if she didn't know she was one yet.)

First things first -- he needed a good secret identity for his whole vigilante-hero schtick.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Okay. Working as a reporter would work out. He hated reporters -- despised them, really -- but they were dumb. They'd completely ignore "one of their own," and not even think anything of it if he disappeared for long periods of time "doing his job." He'd barely have to lift a finger to convince anybody of anything. It was the best hiding place ever!

...Except for the fact that he'd have to work as a reporter. Ugh.

But Tess was already suspicious of Lex/"Clark" and thus would hire him for the Daily Planet (absent college-degree and work experience ignored entirely) just to be able to keep an eye on him. So he knew he'd get the job.

He was also working opposite one extremely annoying Lois Lane...

...who didn't recognize him.

She thought he was _Clark_.

She didn't even bat an eyelash at the fact that Clark had been almost as vehemently opposed to picking up this line of work as a profession as Lex would be -- for a different reason of course, being perfectly happy to while away his days on the farm instead -- and that "Clark" (as far as Lois knew) was now doing a 180-degree 'about face' for no real stated reason other than 'I want to do this now.'

He had a college degree, and Lois did not. He was a better writer than her, and also neither an idiot nor a fool, while she could make no such claims herself (not with any amount of legitimacy, anyway). He was going to be spending his days sitting across a desk from her, after spending his nights fighting crime and taking names and otherwise kicking ass and having a blast.

And she would forever be none the wiser.

Lex grinned to himself widely as he walked away from her (and his!) below-sea-level desk at the Daily Planet.

He was going to have _so_ much fun fucking with her head...

~*~*~*~*~*~


	3. Chapter 3

~*~*~*~*~*~

...Huh.

Flannel, as it turned out, was oddly comfortable on Clark's-now-his alien form. Imagine that.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	4. Chapter 4

~*~*~*~*~*~

Chloe, on the other hand, was no fun at all. More of a nag, really, and kind of a pissy bitch, if he had to come up with a label.

If this was how she usually treated Clark... well, it wasn't exactly a wonder that he'd fallen for Lana without ever sparing a glance at the bottle-blonde, if only barely the once.

Sure, early-on she'd swallowed the very comic-book heroic excuse for wanting to get involved without question ("oh, I didn't know what injustice was really like until it happened to me!" blah-blah-whatever, it was nothing new for Lex)...

...but Lex ought to get a spunky sidekick to banter with, right? How did Chloe not fit the bill for that? Yet she seemed patently unable to perform even the basic staples of such a witty back-and-forth! And how was she so seemingly content to stay out of the field and off of the front lines of everything both Kent- and League-related? Had Smallville just beaten the spunk right out of her? Or had it been Lionel?

...

Goddamn Lionel. Even from beyond the grave he was messing things up for him!

~*~*~*~*~*~

Apparently, Queen was all right with "Clark" not trying to help the League track down Lex, because Clark had practically made it a point _not only_ to stay out of League business in the past, but _also_ to not help them with anything they were working on that actively worked against Lex or LuthorCorp.

Except the one time.

\--God, his dad had been _such_ a liar.

_'Dinner with the Kents,' my--_

*thock!*

Oops.

...Er. How did one go about fixing drywall, exactly?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Holy crap.

He got hugs. He gots hugs from Martha Kent.

\--He was _entitled_ to _hugs_ from **Martha Kent!!**

...

_Fuck. Clark is gonna kill me..._

...

Well, if he was gonna die anyway, he might as well make the most of it, right?

Mmmmm, **hugs**.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	5. Chapter 5

~*~*~*~*~*~

Airplanes. Crashing. He hadn't learned to fly yet.

_Fuck!_

~*~*~*~*~*~

It was probably a good thing that he'd learned how to skydive as part of a prior series of attempts at desensitization of his acute acrophobia.

...Not that he had ever wanted to do _that_ again.

Oddly, it wasn't much worse without the parachute.

\--It was _**VERY**_ much worse. He had no idea how he'd managed to not-strangle Tess on the way down.

Or shortly after digging his legs out of the huge hole in the ground he'd ended up making upon "landing"...

What made it worse was that it was all her fault that he was there. She'd ordered him along as part of his new Daily Planet duties, to cover a story that no-one in their right mind would have handed over to a wet-behind-the-ears cub reporter!

That had _not_ been fun. Not in the slightest. Screw "career advancement" -- he was never taking a plane trip with her anywhere, ever again. He'd quit the Planet first. And screw so-called "Luthor solidarity" -- it wasn't as if she knew she was one, anyway. And even then, she was only half!

...

Lex was going to start rethinking this flying thing, if it was going to turn out anything like this.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Huh? Why the heck did Tess want to meet with him again so soon, after that mess with the plane crash, and at the mansion, no less?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Goddamnit!

\--He should have known. He should have known better. (Especially after that bitch Helen had gotten done with him.) Fool me once, shame on me, but this... _this_ \--!

And now Tess was thoroughly convinced that he was the Kryptonian "savior of humanity" Kal-El.

In retrospect, he probably shouldn't have half-strangled Tess for setting him up with that airplane.

He should have _completely_ strangled Tess. Or broken her neck.

...Except that neither one of those things was a very nice thing to do.

...

...Or left her on the goddamn plane?

He'd have had no excuse for doing that, though, being there and invulnerable and all that. To stand by and do nothing except watch wasn't exactly a thing good men did, either -- and he was trying to be good now, not great.

...

...

_Damnit. This vigilante-hero thing is **hard**._

~*~*~*~*~*~


	6. Chapter 6

~*~*~*~*~*~

\--Jesus Christ, had he _mentioned_ the Watchtower databases were thorough?

And how the hell many types of ~~meteor rock~~ Kryptonite _were_ there that he had to be on the lookout for? And what was this bullshit about different colors doing different--

...oh. _Huh._

Well, that explained Clark's weird behavior that one time...

...

Hold the phone -- Chloe used to have a healing ability? _Really?!_

...And the second-to-last time she'd used it had been on Lex's brain???

\-- _God_ , his dad had been _such a liar!_ Was there _anything_ he'd said that had ever been true?

...

...

...

Oh fuck, he really _was_ The Traveler.

~*~*~*~*~*~

And apparently couldn't get drunk.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Well, at least he had hair. Maybe if he grew it out, he could have a ponytail?

...

Nah, that'd probably look stupid.

...

God, Clark really had had nice hair.

...Well, it was _his_ now.

Heh heh heh.

~*~*~*~*~*~

...Oh my god, had Lana really broken up with Clark via _videotape?!?_

 _Holy shit._ That was the lamest thing he'd ever _seen_.

...

...Damn. Now he was actually starting to feel sorry for him. Allergic to rocks, and now _this_.

~*~*~*~*~*~


	7. Chapter 7

~*~*~*~*~*~

Stupid truck. Lex missed his convertibles.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Agh! Dog! Too friendly! _WHY!?!?!_

(Bleh!)

\--Stupid dog! Couldn't _anybody_ tell?!

~*~*~*~*~*~

...Maybe the truck could tell?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Screw it -- nobody was going to notice if he ran to work instead of driving.

~*~*~*~*~*~

He was right.

~*~*~*~*~*~

**Author's Note:**

> AN2: So, I started this series thinking that I'd literally do the full-swap as a fully-canon-compliant thing, but then I got hit with a couple ideas and decided 'well, screw it,' so it is well and truly a divergent AU now, as you may have noted from Tess bringing up "Lex's journals" and setting up the plane accident a helluva lot earlier this fic than she did canonically in Season 8 :)


End file.
